Bookwarm Games

From the kerfuffle caused by Eiko's love letter to the Alexander summon sequence, passing over for now much of the Treno card tournament in merciful silence. For more: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-ix/ Thanks for listening!

Comparisons to Tolstoy, Joyce, Proust are entertained and mused upon at the narrator's invitation, and we readers and rereaders are entertained and bemused by this puzzling, playful later masterpiece from the author of Lolita, a book that has been back in the news lately due to certain famous people whose lives have been tawdry imitations of its controversial art. Text and annotations: https:/...

The princess and the summoner village brought full circle; we meet our final party member; Kuja vs Brahne; and on to Disc 3. More at https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-ix/ Thanks for listening!

With guest appearances by Dostoevsky and Ippolit: https://anunexpectedjournal.com/beauty-in-tragedy-the-idiot-dostoevsky-and-eucatastrophe/ Thanks for listening!

Discussing Alex's forthcoming entry in the Bibliotheca Dantesca. https://penn.manifoldapp.org/journals/bibliotheca-dantesca Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbigmQGjQaA Thanks for listening!

Selections from Keats' Letters: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69384/selections-from-keatss-letters Text of Endymion, with Preface and notes: https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/poem_endymion_book_i.html Thanks for listening

We end up talking quite a bit about Hamlet and other plays, less about the poem, but it's the point of departure for what I hope is an interesting conversation nonetheless. Babcock later turned up this article on the ways in which the fall of Troy appears across WS' work: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/1/38 For my part, I'm more interested in Shakespeare and Ovid. A book James and C...

Here we are in the plague years of 1592-3, seeing what the "upstart crow" was up to while the theaters were closed. Thanks for listening!

What's the plural of hieros gamos? We celebrate the totally real and binding nuptials of hero and heroine, then living doll and aspiring gourmand, who are immediately blessed with a new child, the last of the Summoners who communes with the Moogles, before traversing the Iifa Tree, breaking the seal and dissipating the Mist. More at https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-...

Part IV and the Epilogue, Smerdyakov and Iago, Dostoevsky and Shakespeare. Thanks for listening!

Escaping death in Fossil Roo to reach the Outer Continent, where we compare Conde Petie and the Black Mage Village; the unobstructed light of the sky and the blue light of memory; the search for origins and the acceptance of mortality. And we don't forget about Quina! Thanks for listening!

Jace invited me to think through some of the ways in which memory and art are almost identicalThanks, Jace, and thank you for listening! You can find links to our past conversations on Xenogears, etc. here: https://newschoolnotes.blogspot.com/2019/05/bookwarm-games-xenogears.html

Contrasting the Queen and the Princess, their Summons, and the fall of Cleyra and Lindblum. Thanks for listening!

Concealed in the pickle pack, Garnet crosses back to Alexandrian soil, has her pocket picked in Treno, and spots a creepy figure in the Auction House. Steiner trades in constellation coins for a Blood Sword. Dr Tot interrupts a half-hearted heist for the Supersoft with flashbacks about a young princess reading I Want to Be Your Canary while researching the Summoner Tribe. We ride a bug-borne troll...

On the death of the father and pursuit of delirium.

Discussing the Grand Inquisitor and other light topics.

Through Qu Marsh, Chocobo Forest, Gizamaluke Grotto, and on to Burmecia. Gameplay considerations galore. For more: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-ix/ Thanks for listening!

Cid the Oglop, Freya the Dragon Knight, and Grandma Pickle the peddler join our adventurers in Lindblum for the Great Hunt. For more: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-ix/ Thanks for listening!

Back from Marrakesh, Alex joins me to discuss Dali, both the 20th artist and the first village in our FF9 adventure. Characters transform and villains mirror one another. Airships go kaboom. Vivi suffers a crisis and enters Trance, whilst Zidane keeps trying to steal that rare loot. https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-ix/ Thanks for listening!

Dostoevsky's masterpiece, introduction and part 1. Getting to know the characters and asking questions about sin. More to come!

Professor Schmid and I direct ourselves in the middle of life's way out of the dark wood (RIP Blank?) of an Evil Forest and through the Ice Cavern. Rising above the Mist, we consider the name changes and character arcs thus far. For more resources, see the course page: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-ix/ Thanks for listening!

Professor Kozlowski and I will be meeting Thursdays in the discord and we'd love for a few more students to join in the discussion of Persona 4: Golden and its place in the culture. For more resources: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/persona-4-golden/ This time we look at the opening act, main characters, and power dynamics in the game's arcana and worldbuilding. Tha...

Shakespeare and Scheherazade, FFVI opera and FFVII rooftops remixed and Mage-mashed on the airship stage. For more, see the course page: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-ix/ Thanks for listening!

If you listen to this episode on a rainy night while looking into an old TV, you might catch a glimpse of your soul mate. And/or be pulled into another world, help solve a murder, unlock arcane abilities, etc. Professor Kozlowski and I will be meeting Thursdays in the discord and we'd love for a few more students to join in the discussion of Persona 4: Golden and its place in the culture. Find...

From the Princess in Alexandria's fairy-tale castle to monkey-tailed Zidane and his crew aboard the airship, and then down among the rabble and rat kids with an unnamed Black Mage, we start a new game in our Side Quests series, Final Fantasy IX. We hope to discuss the game as well as respond to some of the commentary out there, such as Resonant Art, FF Union, and "Necron as Elenchus"...